PROGRAM HELPS FEMALE ADDICTS REGAIN LIFE FREE OF LETHAL DRUG

Methamphetamine use among women in South Dakota has contributed to a
dramatic rise in the number of women incarcerated in the state, more
so than with men, but a new program to battle the problem is showing
some progress.

Between 2005 and 2006, the state penitentiary system had a 19
percent increase in the female offender population.

"That's way bigger than what we typically see," said Laurie Feiler,
deputy secretary for the South Dakota Department of Corrections.

Over the past decade, the number of male inmates rose 53 percent to
3016 in 2007, and the number of female inmates rose 143 percent to
362, according to department records.

Feiler said in 2006, almost half of female inmates coming into the
state prison system had meth problems.

Feiler said many of those women were not incarcerated for a direct
meth crime, but often their crime was related to their meth abuse,
such as theft or writing a bad check in order to pay for the addiction.

The meth abuse is determined by chemical dependency evaluations
conducted on each inmate, regardless of crime, when they come into the prison.

A diagnosis is given based on that and treatments are recommended.

In response to the increased use, Feiler said, "In early spring of
2006, we started working with the Department of Human Services and
the Department of Health in terms of what would be the best way to
handle it."

The answer was to form a women's meth treatment program run by the
department of corrections. The program started in August 2006.

The program is a four-phase treatment plan offered to women who
qualify for it because of their addictions.

Gib Sudbeck, director of the South Dakota Division of Alcohol and
Drug Abuse, said the four-phase plan was modeled after a system
being used at UCLA.

"They have been operating meth-specific programs since the 1980s,"
Sudbeck said.

Sudbeck said the state is seeing more women than men coming into the
prison system requiring treatment for meth.

Sudbeck said women often begin using meth as a weight-loss tool. The
drug gives users more energy when they first begin to use.

"Women today have so many different roles and so many things they
have to do on a daily basis," he said. "Meth is a very high-energy
source. They can accomplish all the things they need to do in a day."

Sudbeck said that energy and good feeling is fleeting. Then comes
the addiction, body sores, rotted teeth and other negative side
effects. Meth can be lethal.

But Sudbeck said people can recover with help and the female meth program.

"It does take a long period of time to deal with a meth-related
problem, but there is hope," he said. "People do get well and recover."

Feiler said an inmate's entry into the program must be timed
properly so she will be paroled or released before phase three, the
phase that involves the women living in a halfway house outside the prison.

The average prison stay of a female inmate is 18 months.

The female meth program takes about 15 months. That involves some
intensive meth treatment within the prison toward the end of the
inmate's prison term. That is followed by additional treatment in a
halfway house and, finally, treatment after the inmate has returned home.

Sudbeck said the first phase of the program involves letting the
brain begin to recover from meth use before actual treatment of the
addiction can begin.

"One of the things we see with meth use is that there is a lot of
neurological impairment in regard to what meth does to the dopamine
receptors of the brain," he said.

He said it can take close to 90 days of being off meth before an
addict is stabilized and prepared to learn and go through treatment.

"The brain needs time to heal itself," Sudbeck said.

Phase two allows the inmate to stay in barracks near the South
Dakota Women's Prison in Pierre where Feiler said women live in a
therapeutic community.

Phase three involves the woman living in a halfway house. There are
facilities in Sioux Falls, Mitchell and Rapid City.

"As much as we can, we place them in the community they'll be living
in," Feiler said.

At the end of November 2007, there were 103 participants in some
phase of the program, and 12 had successfully completed.

Feiler said 17 people had started the program and were not able to
complete it.

"Three failed in phase two because of major disciplinary programs," she said.

She said there were eight failures in phase three and six in phase four.

The 12 successful women have not returned to prison.

Feiler said the program is still so new, it is difficult to judge the success.

"The longest any of them have been out is a few months," she said.
"We're just now getting people who are all the way through the
15-month program."

Feiler said the program seems to be making a difference.

The women who are in the third and fourth phases are tested for
drugs frequently. Feiler said out of the more than 1,400 urinalysis
tests done since the program began, there have been only nine
testing positive for drugs. Those nine positive tests involved only
seven individuals.

Throughout the phases, the women get chemical dependency treatment,
mental health counseling, GED completion training, life skills and
lessons in corrective thinking.

"With substance-abuse problems, there's a way of criminal thinking
that needs to be addressed along with the substance-abuse problem,"
Feiler said.

Feiler said there was a slight drop in the number of women inmates
in the past year.

She said, although that fact cannot be attributed solely to the meth
treatment program, she thinks it will make a difference in the long
run in the number of women who end up back in the prison system.

So far this year, 38 percent of women coming into the prison had
meth problems, which Feiler said is still a large number but is down
slightly from the past two years.

"So something is shifting a little bit," she said.